Wanda Rutkiewicz: A Caravan of Dreams. This item is unavailable.Wanda Rutkiewicz: A Caravan of Dreams

The first English translation of the biography, by Austrian journalist Gertrude Reinisch, of the acclaimed Polish female mountaineer Wanda Rutkeiwicz.

Wanda Rutkiewicz on Wanda A BRIEF CHILDHOOD 'I never found learning serious things any more difficult than learning games, and that's why I don't take life as seriously as many other people I know.'

'I always took anything that might limit my independence as a personal attack, to be resisted rather than accommodated in any way.' PATHS TO FREEDOM 'I was totally possessed by climbing from that very first moment. The experience was like some inner explosion. I knew it would somehow mark the rest of my life.'

'In the Pamirs we seemed to be just stomping around in the snow for several weeks. Admittedly I got my first 7000-metre peak out of it, but when I got home I swore never to join another expedition.' 8000-METRE PEAKS PATHS TO ADVENTURE 'The consciousness that I dared not make the slightest mistake fascinated me. It was exciting to be totally responsible for myself. That's how I learned to cope with difficult situations alone. I sometimes wondered what I thought I was doing. But then, there's no such thing as adventure without risk.'

'I'd always been a rather anxious person. I'm forever scared that something terrible might happen to me.' THE CARAVAN OF DREAMS 'Living your dreams, instead of just dreaming them, is not without risk.'